


where i come from

by anxiousrainbows



Category: Knight Squad (TV)
Genre: Ciara Sees Seagate, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mentions of War, Poverty, this is kind of sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiousrainbows/pseuds/anxiousrainbows
Summary: "It means, you saw Seagate, the poverty I grew up in. Now compare that to Astoria.""Oh. I guess I never really thought about it that way.""Yeah, because where you grew up, turning 15 meant you could apply for Knight School. Where I grew up, turning 15 meant you were done with school and got assigned a task for the village."or: Arc takes Ciara to Seagate and she sees the poverty much of her kingdom faces for the first time.
Relationships: Arc/Ciara | The Princess (Knight Squad)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	where i come from

**Author's Note:**

> so i've had this idea since i saw the show, but i never really had the confidence to write it. now, on a rewatch with a few fics under my belt, i thought i'd finally sit down and write it.

"We're here."

Arc stopped the chariot he and Ciara were riding in. The two of them got out and walked into Seagate. 

Children were playing on the rusted park while the adults shooed flies off of the lunch they were making. Kids no older than Arc and Ciara were when they started Knight School were hauling in firewood and tinder from the nearby forest, while others boiled water in stolen pots to purify it. Small shacks built on old and worn wood were littered throughout the community. There were people pouring food into feeding containers for the community's scrawny livestock— hens and goats that they didn't have to kill to provide food. Some of the women cooking began to sing an old folk song for the children as they served them their lunch. Men walked in, one of them a large bison on his back, and the people previously cooking began to help them prepare it for the night's supper. Kids were laughing and talking as they ate their lunch. The grass was mostly dead, but close to the forest it was alive and flowers were beginning to bloom. 

"Oh my God," Ciara said.

"Come on, let's go see my parents," Arc said.

They walked into Arc's house, seeing his parents sipping on some tea.

"Oh, hey honey!" his mom said, "Welcome home!"

His parents wrapped Arc in a hug, and then they saw Ciara.

"Who's this?" Arc's dad said.

"Guys, this is Ciara. She's also the Princess of Astoria, and my girlfriend."

"You're dating the future Queen?" Arc's mom said.

"How could you do this to us?" Zander said.

"What?" Arc asked.

"You know what her family has done to our village, to our family. And now you think to bring her here, into our family, as if her father isn't the reason we don't have running water?" Eleanor yelled. 

This caught the attention of the others in the village, and soon all the adults were in their home. 

"How could you betray our community like this, Arc?" One of the Elders said. "Princess, please step outside."

Ciara went out and played with the children.

"I wasn't trying to betray anyone. I love her, and I plan to ask her to marry me in the coming year."

"This is outrageous. Arc, you cannot continue to see this girl if you want to be able to call Seagate home," Another Elder said.

His mother took a deep breath. "Arc, you have betrayed us all. So either you can take her back to Astoria and end things with her, or you can leave with her. If you choose her, you may never come back here."

"So you're making me choose between the love of my life or my family?"

"You've forced us to, Arc. Her family let us go to ruins after Ryker, and it's not like they were helping us a ton before then, either. She's probably just going to use you as a thing to parade around to show that the damn dragonbloods aren't classist when they are," An Elder said.

"Okay then. You've made your choice, I guess it's time for me to make mine."

Arc walked out to see Ciara braiding flowers into a child's hair, a flower crown made by one of the others atop her head.

"Cici, we gotta go."

"Let me finish this—"

"Now, Ciara."

"Okay."

Ciara handed over the braid to another child, and Arc helped her off the ground. They walked over to the chariot, and climbed back in. Arc kissed her and sent the chariot on their way.

Arc looked back to see tears streaming down his mother's face.

"Why aren't they going to school?" Ciara asked Arc about all the kids.

"That is their school— all the parents teach their own kids, and they have a community lunch so that the kids can play together. We don't have one building for it like in Astoria."

"Why did we have to leave so abruptly?"

"Because the Elders didn't like that I'm dating you, so they gave me an ultimatum: you or Seagate."

Ciara could sense the anger in Arc's voice.

"And you chose me?"

"Only so that your father doesn't screw us over more than he already has in retaliation." 

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, you saw Seagate, the poverty I grew up in. Now compare that to Astoria."

"Oh. I guess I never really thought about it that way."

"Yeah, because where you grew up, turning 15 meant you could apply for Knight School. Where I grew up, turning 15 meant you were done with school and got assigned a task for the village."

"What was yours?"

"Going into other villages with more than us and stealing from them."

"That explains a lot."

"Yeah, we tend to be pretty big on jobs that get passed down from generation to generation."

"I knew Seagate wasn't like Astoria, but I wasn't expecting to be that—"

"Poor?"

"I guess. I wish there was more I could do as Princess. Once I become Queen, though, I promise that villages like Seagate will get more resources."

"You think that just giving us some money is going to heal all this? It's going to take generations of the nobility giving us equal resources before that wound is healed, if it ever does. Quite frankly, I don't think it ever will."

"Wow. I didn't realize that the small villages of the kingdom were hurting this much."

"Because you never had to. You and Warwick and everyone else at Knight School never had to. I did, and that's why I snuck in to Knight School, so that every one of the snooty dragonbloods that only see us as dirt under their shoe would have to see that we're more than just a bunch of low-lifes like they think."

"I wish I'd stopped to think about how all the villages must be struggling when Ryker came."

"I don't blame you. We were young and you'd grown up in this life of opulence; the first sight of that possibly being taken away must've been terrifying and all-consuming."

"Yeah, but we had the resources to fight back against Ryker, and you guys didn't. I didn't get my life turned upside down like that, and you did."

"Ciara, it's not your fault. That goes to the nobility who put us in the poverty that made us vulnerable to Ryker's attack."

"You mean my dad and every other king before him?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Well, when I'm Queen, that cycle of putting everyone else in poverty just so we can live this overly lavish lifestyle ends."

"I have no doubts about that, especially since I hope to be by your side when it happens."

"Of course you will. You're the love of my life, I wouldn't want anyone else there."

**Author's Note:**

> this is me basically getting out my feelings about how the relationship between astoria and seagate (and the other villages like it) felt very "let them eat cake," and how if this was a show rated higher than y-7 there would've definitely been commentary on the opulence the dragonbloods live in vs arc having to learn to steal from a young age.


End file.
